Barren Earth’s “The Withdrawal” – the cross road song!

The new album – “A COMPLEX OF CAGES” – is announced to be released on March 30th, 2018. Back in summer already Olli-Pekka Laine (bass, main composer) told me, “Yeah, definitely. It’s darker.” While the first single “FURTHER DOWN” is pretty much that from the first moment on, listening to second, just released single, “THE WITHDRAWAL” we might think differently. It feels so light but then … A somewhat soft tune ripples by like a slow, yet deep river. It seems like the perfect song to listen to during your breakfast in that one hotel in Rovaniemi that enables you to drink your coffee starring at the Kemijoki flowing slowly right under your nose but with the immense energy that will drag you along whatever you try.

You sit and stare at the water. Following the tunes and the water you give into to your thoughts, forget about the world. Soon you wonder about the sense and senselessness of life, all the cross roads you seem to have found in the very same moment. You still stare at the majestic river and hear the clear and bright voice of Jón when you start to feel lost on those crossroads he sings of. Are you more than one tiny drop of water in this mighty river? Unable to decide. You try to let go of the thought, let it swim away like all the other drops of water in the river (of the tune).
And when you think the sun is about to warm the icy flood, the tune rises in tension, drilling even deeper into your twisted mind. Your mood is getting heavier not unlike despair. Can you fight that much longer? You see the crossroads beneath you as if you could float above your life. You hear the lyrics of that one who cannot decide as any option is at least of questionable sense.

Suddenly you notice that the song ended and slowly your mind awakes from this journey into the darkness of your doubts. Your mug of coffee is still in your hand, filled. But the coffee has cooled down to undrinkable. The river flows softly while the sun rises and casts a shadow of the torch bridge on the water. Peacefully.

Lately Jón Aldará (vocals, main lyricist) said to me: “It’s probably the song that deviates most from Barren Earth sound. “THE WITHDRAWAL”. It’s at least quite different from the things, we’ve done before I think. But then again maybe your opinion differs. I just think it was very cool to end with that song because it was kind of a …”, he too takes a second to reword his thought: “It has a feeling of transition in a way. And it might give us an opportunity in the future to move in different ways somehow. It’s a not something that is decided or anything but I think it is an interesting way to end the album.” As I said, a cross roads song leaving lose ends for us to imagine what is to come – even after the „COMPLEX OF CAGES“!